I'm not fussed whether it's rolls, sidesteps, or whatever, as long as it's responsive and balanced around the combat mechanics (damage, attack time, hitboxes, enemy attack patterns, etc). I don't really consider the change between Souls and Bloodborne to be better/worse so much as more relevant to the kind of game it is, which is more aggressive and faster. Roll works well in the context of Souls and how the encounters play out, whereas the abundance of fast moving enemies and bosses and focus on close range play makes a sidestep more sensible.
My biggest issue with The Witcher 2's combat was what I considered to be poor balance of a change to action driven combat systems yet still integrating Witcher 1 like combos. If your combat system is purely action driven you really, really need to simplify every move into something predictable and responsive. You can have combos and shit, but every attack/dodge/roll/whatever needs to be linked to a button press. Witcher 2 had these weird moments, after unlocks in the tree, where Geralt would finish a combo or whatever with some stupid fancy move that left him open. Or worse, would automatically roll forward to attack an enemy, potentially closing distance to put himself within a group.
Hopefully TW3 remedies that. Keep functions, you know, functional.
